Three weeks after Gov. Jim Douglas vetoed legislation seeking guarantees behind the Vermont Yankee decommissioning fund, his administration is raising its own questions about the financial stability of a proposed new owner for the nuclear plant.
The Department of Public Service yesterday filed lengthy testimony at the Public Service Board sharply criticizing Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Nuclear’s plan to spin off the Vernon reactor and five other nuclear plants into a new company, to be called Enexus.
The department says it questions the company’s plan to start out with $4.5 billion in debt, and below investment-grade status.
Those were some of the same issues lawmakers raised when they were drafting the legislation that Douglas vetoed.